Farm-to-Table Chef Sara Out in Her Fields!
34 year old Chef Sara Mercaldi not only dishes out Apulian classics such as orecchiete con le cime di rape (orechiette pasta with bitter greens) and calamarata cozze & fiori di zucca (calamarata pasta with mussels & zucchini flowers) but she goes beyond what she’s learned from 2 generations of women in her family. And clearly she’s been well-trained by expert chefs – mom & grandma who’ve taught her how to make pasta and pizza from scratch, le scorpelle (a San Savero favorite – fried anchovy dough), melanzane ripiene al coccio (baked eggplant)… and well, you can imagine the list is long.
What’s great about Sara is that she has taken traditions of inspiration and learnings, and now invents her own recipes! Sara experiments with local Apulian food and serves up both the classics and classics with a twist to guests visiting her family farmhouse restaurant.
100% Italy Food Roots-Friendly
In short – this girl knows what she’s doing. And not only do we love her because half of her Facebook pictures show her “supermarket shopping” straight in her farm fields, but this young creative Italian chef is full of energy, great ideas and most importantly – tradition. She’s professional when it comes to food, and it doesn’t stop there. Sara is also a certified sommelier and food blogger.
If you want to see more of Puglia Chef Sara & her recipes check out her website.
And read Italy Food Root’s Interview with Sara!
